travel – food – fun

Recipe Roadtest: Spicy One-Pot Quinoa and Chorizo

We usually go out for dinner on the weekend, so I tend not to do much cooking on Saturday or Sunday. However, this particular Saturday night, my fiancé was invited to a corporate event at the footy, which meant that I had a rare night at home. I decided to use this chance to cook up something new; and flicking through the pages of a Christmas present – Donna Hay’s Simple Dinners – I found a recipe for one-pot chorizo and cous cous. Continuing my healthy eating attempts, I substituted quinoa for cous cous and added in mushrooms for extra nutrients – but don’t worry, it still tastes delicious!

Spicy One-Pot Quinoa and Chorizo

What you’ll need:

2 teaspoons olive oil

3 chorizos, sliced

1/2 teaspoon chilli flakes

2 teaspoons rosemary leaves

2 cups quinoa

2 cups chicken stock

250g baby spinach leaves or kale

150g mushrooms

1/2 cup flat-leaf parsley leaves

Lemon wedges (optional), to serve

What to do:

1. Heat the oil in a deep non-stick frying pan over medium-high heat. Add the chorizo, chilli and rosemary and cook for 7-9 minutes or until the chorizo is cooked.

2. Add the quinoa and chicken stock. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 10-15 minutes or until the stock is absorbed.

3. Mix through the spinach and parsley.

4. Spoon into bowls and serve with lemon wedges (if you have any handy). Enjoy!

Notes:

The original recipe called for sliced onions to be pan-fried with the chorizo – I forgot to buy any, but it would definitely add great flavour to the dish!

This made a LOT of quinoa; I was bringing leftovers in for lunch almost every day for the next week! We had some leftover BBQ chicken from dinner one night and I shredded some into the quinoa and chorizo, which also worked really well, so that’s another option if you’re not too keen on chorizo.

Add more chilli if you want an extra kick; half a teaspoon did not make this dish especially spicy.

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